Defendants are regularly condemned to years, decades, or life in prison for minor infractions because of minimum sentencing statutes. If judges had more discretion in sentencing, then sentences could be more proportional to the crime, more specific to the individual defendant, and minimize the negative impact of minimum sentencing laws without inherently needing those laws repealed.
“Louisiana is one of only two states -- the other is Oregon -- that don’t require unanimous juries for all felony convictions, and it’s the only state where a jury that isn’t unanimous can send a person to prison for the rest of their life.“
NOLA News
November 5, 2018
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